Kyoukai Senki episode 20 – A new country?

May 27, 2022Episode Review,  Mecha Discussion,  ,  
Through out the episodes, we have all known that Kyoukai Senki’s build up and pacing is low and steady…
But gosh, we probably have 3-4 episodes left and nothing seems in place.
Some of the build-ups felt like a waste.
Welp, let’s dive into the episode.

The whole sub-plot around Yuusei, dear staff, you could now scrap 75% of it except for the autonomous place, even why his parent was dead, and the story will still be 90% the same. The whole “I will do it differently from all of you”, seriously, tell us more! You said because his parent died by fighting Asians, then what kind of missions did they take that resulted in their demise, so much so that their son agree to become their killer’s spy? Guys, you just left it out and let the story continue like it wasn’t something important. Seriously, if they want to do the big reveal then they should have done it sooner, if they even intended to do it in the first place, because at this point, the show is probably gonna end in 5 episodes at maximum. There is no way they can cramp all of it into those finale episodes and say “we did a good job”. Not only Yuusei’s, but Udou’s, Asia’s, and Oceanic’s sub-story have also been reduced too damn much. The oceanic side is the worst case, as the guy that we have in episode 20, Oliver Martin has only appeared in one episode back in the first part, and we hardly have time to actually knew him. Where did that soldier want to attack a town full of Japanese because he got bored? In 8 months, what happened to him? If they manage to fix it in future episodes, I will gladly apologize, but until then, I stand on my ground.
Saying a bit more about Udou, I want to see his “dark” side, which has been teased when they introduced Yuusei and that monologue at the end of first part, more. With this episode 20, the script, kinda intentionally ignores all of them, and makes Udou some kind of a wise leader. He may be wise, but there is no way that he did not make mistakes. Show us that, so we could bond with him. Not the “we and the previous generation…” but “I did some f*ed up things in the past so that this organization could survive” stuff. It’s basic, yes, but the whole show is a basic mecha show anyway, go along with it!
Aside from that, Shion at this point needs her turning point. Amou and Gashin has been developed decently, and she got left behind. Not only that, we knew that she is a sweet girl, but at least let her be a little bit of skeptical about a plan involved the Asia side? Not to mention her reason to fight has something to do with the Asians, at least Gashin made an appropriate reaction at first. Man…
But there are something good along the way. I kinda like the conversation between Zelenoy and Amou. Never thought that those two could go along with each other, and actually has chemistry between him, Amou, and Gai. Gai got rekt when talking with Zelenoy, and that just made me respect the guy even more. Considering whose enemy side got developed well, the Zelenoy would be at least on top 3. Top 1 though, no doubt would be the NA. Brad and those around him is enough to carry that aspect on NA side. Wish the project has more episodes though.
From what Louis, the lieutenant from Brad’s team, said that after Brad got his hands on Ghost, he started to change. What kind of “curse” that Ghost did out on him? Welp, I suspect that we will have the answer in the next episode, because from what the preview showed to us, Zelenoy, Amou and Brad will have a friendly conversation.

>Reryuu<

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